Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation ***½/5: A good action film and an improvement on Ghost Protocol, due to its more intricate story line, but still derivative and superficial in many areas.

(phtoto courtesy of comingsoon.net)

I watched Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (MIRN) a couple weeks ago but did not bother to comment for two reasons. The first reason is that I was not impressed with the previous entry in the series Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The second reason is that I watched Rogue Nation while I was a bit sleepy. I was in and out of sleep while watching this film in the cinema despite the loud explosions, crashes, fights and the reactions of various members of the audience. My sleepiness had nothing to do with the film because I was tired going into the film. Anyways the film is now a commercial and critical success and so my views won’t count for much (as if they ever did). I did watch enough of this film to know that it was an improvement on Ghost Protocol because it was more intricate and does raise some questions about the IMF organization.

The film is about a mysterious terrorist group called the Syndicate that seek to disrupt the world order and create a new one with targeted terrorist attacks. The IMF has been absorbed into the operations of the CIA and is now defunct with its members scattered throughout the bureaucracy or left to their own devices. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is now on the run but does use his resources to try to track down the syndicate and its leader and he is aided, somewhat by a beautiful woman, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), whose intentions are never quite clear particularly as it is revealed that she is a British spy working undercover with the syndicate.

Positives

The primary positive of this film is that it is an improvement on Ghost Protocol. This is because the film is more intricate particularly when you’re dealing with so many mysterious figures. There are a lot of questions concerning the actual existence of the Syndicate. Normally when you do encounter them you end up dead or trapped. It adds a air of mystery particularly with the introduction of Ilsa whose motives aren’t always that clear.

I like that the very nature of the IMF is questioned in this film. I am still not convinced by the specialty of the organization itself but it does lay the groundwork for the impossible missions led by Ethan Hunt. This is why I was interested when the nature of the organization was questioned. Why was it not a branch of the CIA in the first place and why is it reliant on such a small crew of individuals? Obviously a large part of this film is about the IMF proving its credibility or salvaging its reputation. In order to do this it must expose the Syndicate and nab its leader. Easier said than done.

The action sequences kept me awake at times while I was nodding off and so they were pretty good. The sequences were still a bit generic and there were no genuine thrills for me. Nothing spectacular. That moment when Tom Cruise was hanging outside of an airplane as it is taking off was the closest the film came to generating a genuine thrill for me. It was a let down because it was designed to be a poster image. What follows after he hangs outside the door was pretty ordinary but they clearly wanted to start with a bang.

Rebecca Ferguson is a  beauty and brings a genuine allure or star quality as the leading female performer in the film.

Negatives

The superficiality of the IMF unit was exposed in this film and this begs the question as to why it is given this grand title yet is so easily disbanded. Is it an organization or just a group of individuals? The film does raise some issues regarding the trail of destruction left by the IMF but does not address how it is structured or its operational capacity. It seems like a flimsy organization and the redemption at the end should not have been enough to redeem it especially as it is so dependent on Ethan Hunt.  

There are a lot of intricacies in this film that are inconsequential such as the role played by Ilsa. While her intentions are not clear there is no reason why this is so. She just acts sometimes with no explanation in order to create an unnecessary air of mystery.  This is because we don’t get much of an insight into her character, especially her motivations.  There are other instances that are designed to give the syndicate this mysterious air although when everything is eventually explained it did not grab me. It seems like just enough for the film and so everything is easily resolved. It’s business as usual. The syndicate does provide a certain challenge but Ethan always seems in control and everything is neatly wrapped up for the next film in the series. Let’s see if this concept of the rogue nation makes enough money to merit a sequel. This series just relies on the next impossible mission.  There is not much of a connecting thread linking the many films in the series except impossible missions.  If that’s the case then I am justified in saying that this film is superficial. The story is pretty flimsy.  The filmmakers just have to do enough to make a mission seem impossible. Once the mission is completed then the film has nothing else to carry it through. The series will run out of gas pretty soon unless they can introduce some new characters and make them more permanent. A next generation of IMF stars.

The action sequences were very generic despite the fancy gadgets. I was not too impressed with the action sequences but they were good enough.